Rehearsal notes and markings for parts

This is a page for APO players to view rehearsal notes or advice to be inserted into parts, from Andrew, prior to the next rehearsal.

October 2025 concert – Mahler Symphony No.9

Notes/markings for parts

Second movement gear change guide

The second movement is based around three “Ländler” tempi. As a kind of Bavarian/Austrian forerunner of the waltz, these are obviously in three in a bar. We always want to feel those three beats and never throw them away, especially the third beat, which needs to lead to the first beat but not fall into it – it’s important. This is especially tempting at the fastest of the three tempi, when I’m beating in one, and it’s why you’ll see me showing the three crotchet beats within my one-in-a-bar beat, if you look closely. There are various gear changes, some gradual, some crunching (including one from 5th gear back into 1st without warning that the horns have to contend with!). It’s not massively obvious from the parts where these changes are, at least not while you’re reading them, and occasionally I anticipate the changes before they’re marked. So here’s a little guide to where you might want to have a bit of extra awareness, in terms of watching and listening:

Firstly, rough practice speeds for the three tempi are:
- Tempo I (marked at the start of the movement as Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers (In the tempo of a comfortable/relaxed Ländler) – marked as ‘Tempo I’ whenever it recurs in the rest of the movement. Crotchet = c.84-92. The important performance instruction that helps us think about the way we play it is Etwas täppisch und sehr derb – somewhat clumsy and very coarse, further emphasised when the second violins introduce the tune by Schwerfällig – ponderous/heavy-footted. Mahler really wants us to feel to ham up, perhaps even mock, the rustic nature of the music.
- Tempo II is the fast, slightly frenetic tempo (later marked Waltzer, so very much a fast Viennese Waltz), which I’ll beat in 1 (marked initially at 18a as Poco piu mosso subito) is dotted minim = c.48-52 (which of course means crotchet = c.144-156 – important for not rushing, retaining control and still feeling the hierarchy of the three crotchet beats).
- Tempo III is really relaxed, back in 3 (marked Ländler, ganz langsam – quite slow). I think of this music as enjoying a snooze in the corner, exhausted from all the dancing. Crotchet = c.68-74.
Obviously we start with Tempo I. At the second rehearsal day, we talked about how it’s important not to create long phrases in this tempo. Break everything up into little mini-phrases. That helps stop it flowing too much, as we don’t want that (with the possible exception of cello countermelody at 18, which quickly gets shouted down, anyway!)
On the barline of 18a we crunch straight into the fast Tempo II.
At 20a, Mahler instructs to carry on at the same Tempo (II)
Five before 21a (the first appearance of Tempo III, we have two bars marked rit., followed by three bars of molto ritenuto. The goal here is not to get to Tempo III, but ideally to run out of dance energy so much that we wheezily get slower then Tempo III, so the last bar before the new tempo should be really slow. This also helps the violas make the most of the short hairpins that give the impression of being out of breath. By the last bar before 21a, I should probably need to show the six quavers.
We’re barely into the snoozy Tempo III before we hit three bars of rit. followed by a bar of molto rit. in which I may or may not show the six quavers. Then we’re back into Tempo I, being careful not to let it flow too much, looking after the third beats, etc.
There’s an unmarked poco meno mosso I’d like us to do, 18 before 21b, to reflect a little minor key episode in the music. Please mark that in.
That’s followed by the marked rit. 13 before 21b, which takes us back into a confusingly-marked a tempo (langsam wie vorher) fließend. This actually means Tempo III (but a little more flowing). Indeed, we definitely want to let go of the two bars of rippling quavers in the oboes and clarinets 5 bars before 21b, before hitting the rit. 2 bars before 21b, which leads to…
…the molto rit. the bar before 21b. Although not strictly marked as such, we want the last quaver beat of this bar to be at the crotchet speed of the fast Tempo II, that follows in the next bar. To do this, I’ll subdivide the last crotchet beat into two quavers and give a fast Tempo II upbeat crotchet. That’s a complicated description, so we’ll just practice it a few times – please mark a pair of glasses in your parts there.
(Don’t worry about the Fließend (flowing) marking after 22 – the music takes care of that. Same with the Noch etwas lebhafter (even more lively) that follows. That’s just about the feel of the music and there doesn’t need to be a big push on the tempo there.)
We have two bars of rit. going into the much slower Tempo III at 22a. This isn’t enough, so please mark a rit. from the upbeat to three bars before 22a (again giving us a chance to make the most of the hairpins, which I think might be missing from the viola part – worth checking).
Don’t forget that aside from the flutes who carry on trilling, everyone else has a very short comma before 22a. I’ll show this. Please don’t blunder into the next bar!
The rit. followed by molto rit. 12th and 13th of 22a won’t go into quavers and will actually sidle into the a tempo (III) with sleepy drunken seductiveness, placing the piano beautifully.
The next rit. (two bars) followed by molto rit. will probably go slow enough to end up in quavers in the molto rit. bar, but again will slip into the next bar with some nice placement of the subito piano.
There’s a little stringendo marked 20 before 23, so pairs of glasses and ears pricked for that.
It’s followed by a quite sudden rit. molto (quite difficult from the notation in my score to see that this instruction applies to the two bars before the Tempo I. The bar before the Tempo I I’ll show the four crotchets and do a left hand bring off, before giving a new upbeat for the bassoons back in Tempo I. This worked fine in rehearsal.
23a – the fun starts! The idea is to gradually return to Tempo II (the fast Viennese Waltz), but it actually happens over a relatively short space of time. We’ve had some success in rehearsal by getting the ball rolling with the viola and cellos broken chord quavers the bar before. From there on, it’s a question of listening like crazy – at some point it’ll be fast enough for me to go from three beats to one, but as always with Tempo II, don’t lose the importance of the third crotchet, both musically and in terms of keeping it together. This transition will likely happen mostly in the last four or five bars before the Tempo II marking, so put some forward arrows in there.
We’re then going to keep it steady at Tempo II (I have a reminders not to rush plastered all over my score!) until we get to 25a, which is marked Noch etwas frischer (a bit more vigorously). At this point, we can start thinking about playing with more energy.
We really start to get going at the marking Allmählich etwas eilend, doch nie übersetzt (gradually hurrying, but without losing control). It’s all there in Mahler’s instruction.
The hardest gear change of the whole symphony is in the hands of the horns and the second violins. At 25b with zero warning, we drop straight back into the much slower Tempo I. Horns have to wait an age to play the second beat, second violins have to off the second beat. We will practice this many times! Please mark your part with anything that will help you remember!
And that’s it. There are a few performance instructions before the end, but they’re nothing to worry about. I’ll take care of them.

Fourth movement ebb and flow awareness guide

Despite the title of this section, it’s not my intention to signpost every little push and pull in the fourth movement. Rather, I thought it would be useful to give an idea of what I’m looking to achieve, musically. Mapping everything out also encourages individual interpretation of detailed instructions, whereas we actually need to set out to play this slow music accurately and together. The nuances of the phrasing come through awareness – connecting with each other through listening (and, yes, a bit of watching!). A good example is the turn figure that dominates the music (from the plaintive trumpet theme in the middle section of the third movement). This usually has a touch of forward momentum in its semiquaver variant, but this is one of those features you want to feel, rather than consciously do by yourself, otherwise everyone will do this at slightly different speeds.

With all this in mind, as well as some comments about general interpretation, I’ve indicated some places where extra awareness is required, without necessarily saying what for (which also gives me the opportunity to warn about potential banana skins)!

We’ve talked in rehearsals about how the music of this movement falls into one of two categories. Simplistically, these are: warmth and richness of sound = life; coldness and emptiness = death (though the very ending resolves these conflicting ideas in a very moving, comforting way – in my opinion). All the cold sections (44 for 2 bars, 45 to 46, 48 to 49, 49 to 50 (at least the accompaniment, rather than the solos), 8th to 10th of 51, and 1 before 52 to the end) need to be played ‘pure tone’ (i.e. no vibrato), except where marked espressivo (and even then in the context of the warmth trying to break through the coldness).
It’s important to note that the music is in 4/4. This is the context for the various performance instructions that amount to ‘play the music slowly’. Therefore, while the slower music is beat in 8 quavers, we need to still think of the music in four crotchets.
The first moment of extra awareness is in the 7th bar, where we’ve rehearsed a hesitation to the third crotchet beat and asked the bass instruments to delay their decrescendo hairpin til well into the third crotchet beat.
The third of 44’s instruction of Straffer im Tempo is interpreted in my score glossary as ‘stricter in tempo’, which is a bit vague. However, another interpretation of Straffer is ‘narrower’. I take both to mean a little bit more urgent than before. The forward movement continues with a Fließend (flowing) instruction 7 before 45, then becomes more explicit with Etwas drängend (somewhat urgent – though Mahler does also instruct us to do this ‘imperceptibly’ – let me worry about that).
45 is slow, like the opening
The next tempo instruction after 45 is 6 before 46, where Mahler again instructs a bit of urgency to the music, but there’s a difference from the last time (before 45) he puts this instruction. This is because he puts an instruction at 46 of Molto adagio subito but explicitly requires the quaver beat to equal the crotchet beat in the last few bars. In other words, we’re meant to have got urgent enough for the beat to have migrated from 8 quavers to 4 crotchets. To achieve this, and to lend a little bit more flow to the viola and violin solos starting as far back as 7th of 45, I will probably gently nudge the music on a little bit earlier than where Mahler indicates, so that I can get into 4 no later than 5 before 46.
Watch out for the rit. the bar before 47.
We’ve talked about making sure the quintuplet semiquavers don’t rush at their beginning. If you need to make up time to get to the next beat, that’s fine. But mostly, just try to play them straight and together – the phrasing will take care of itself.
We have another call for imperceptible urgency 3 before 48. I may go into 4 here, but if I do, it won’t push too much and I may well do an unmarked hold up into 48, so that we can better place the subito pp over the barline. Pairs of glasses in parts, please.
49 will be in 4 and will probably flow a little bit to create that coldness whilst giving the solo espressivo entries a little bit of movement to work with, but be careful to let it still feel mysteriously slow and not hurry. There are various encouragements from Mahler to push the tempo all the way to 3 before 51, which is still in 4 and well understood through rehearsal to be increasingly held back. It’s really crucial that everyone watches here, so worth memorising the notes (or, simply looking at what the next one is then looking up – there’s enough time after all).
51 is back at the original tempo but Mahler instructs us to be still broader than the original tempo – which is a good reason not to be too slow at the start of the movement.
Pair of glasses on the upbeat to the 8th of 51 so that we can place the subito piano.
Having stated that I would go into 4 somewhere else after 53, we settled on going into (a very slow) 4 in the 2nd bar of 53 (staying in 8 for the first bar allows a little hold up in the 2nd violins’ upward scale, meaning they can place the second bar with the most precious espressivo on the planet).
The music from 53 is meant to get slower and slower, but don’t think about it too much. Just call on immense concentration and awareness, so that there’s no guesswork in where we’re placing each delicate thread of the texture. You should never be placing a note in this section without looking up. It stays in 4, except for quavers to control the 2nd violins’ rit. on the four quavers at the end of the 7th bar from the end.
The rest is just watching, feeling, listening to create something remarkable.

Extra rehearsal letters – please ensure these are in your parts by the second rehearsal at the latest:

3a A tempo (10 bars before 4 )
5a Fließend (10 bars before 6 )
6a Tempo I. subito (15 bars before 7 )
11a Leidenschaftlich (10 bars after 11 )
12a Plötzich langsamer (9 bars before 13 )
13a Bewegter (quasi Allegro) (8 bars before 14 )
16a Plötzlich bedeutend langsamer und leise (21 bars after 16 )
16b Schon ganz langsam (31 bars after 16a )

II.

18a Poco più mosso subito (33 bars after 18 )
20a Immer dasselbe Tempo (10 bars after 20 )
21a Tempo III (32 bars after 21 )
21b A tempo II (22 bars before 22 )
22a Tempo III (51 bars before 23 )
23a Allmählich in Tempo II (22 bars after 23 )
25a Noch etwas frischer (21 bars after 25 )
25b Tempo I subito (19 before 26 )

III.

36a Flätterzunge (19 bars after 36 )
40a Tempo I subito (29 bars after 40 )
43a Più stretto (26 bars after 43 )
43b Presto (25 bars after 43a )

IV.

44 11 bars after start (of 4^th mov)
45 Plötzich wieder langsam (18 bars after 44 )
46 Molto adagio subito (22 bars after 45 )
47 A tempo (16 bars after 46 )
48 Wieder altes Tempo (10 bars after 47 )
49 Stets sehr gehalten (16 bars after 48 )
50 Fließender, doch durchaus nicht eilend (20 bars after 49 )
51 Tempo I. Molto adagio (20 bars after 50 )
52 23 bars after 51 )
53 Adagissimo (12 bars after 52 )

First violin awkward pitching practice tracks

The wonderful James Taylor has created violin practice tracks for the following passages:

3 before 45 for the awkward pitching on 45 itself
8 before 52 for the awkward pitching on the bar before 52

Although these are aimed at helping the first violins with the awkward pitching, they may also be useful to second violins. Tracks are provided in three variations: dynamics roughly as marked, with the first violin part amplified and with the second violin part amplified.

Disclaimers – it’s a midi representation and although the electronic instruments sound quite impressively realistic, there are obvious limitations, especially around glissandi (which are omitted from the ‘around 52’ passage, cos they sound ludicrous!) and portamento. The tone is a bit wobbly where sometimes we’ll play it pure, etc.